Disney's Kanter says the new cartoon represents not an abandonment of an old, familiar world, but rather an alternate universe for Pooh and his crew."Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing," she says. "We hope people will fall for this new tomboyish girl. The last thing we want to be is the ones who brought the franchise down."
USATODAY.com - Disney lets girl into Winnie's world
A few days ago a friend expressed sentiment about sometimes you almost feel sorry for people who work in marketing. Then I see this and I'm reminded that the profession has earned my enmity. They are making a new CGI Winnie the Pooh TV show - likely bad, but I'd reserve judgement. They are replacing Christopher Robin with a girl. Why? Apparently to bring an "older audience" to Pooh. OK, I don't need to reserve judgement anymore - this stinks.
There's a lot of babble in the story about "expanding" the brand which is pretty sad. Y'see adding a new character expands the brand. Replacing one character with another one doesn't expand the brand, it changes the brand for no good reason. Grrrr.
(I saw it from The Whatever - author John Scalzi's blog.)